FHT guest lecture: Towards evidence-based well-being and prevention

About the lecture

Non-communicable or chronic diseases are the biggest burden on our health systems worldwide. They are responsible for the lion's share of our suffering, days lost to disability, and financial expenditures.

At the same time, we know that only a small proportion of chronic diseases are due to our genetic make-up. The literature suggests that up to 80% of our non-communicable diseases depend on our lifestyle, i.e. how we deal with stress, sleep, eat, keep our bodies in shape or whether we smoke or drink too much alcohol.

In theory, a number of measures are already available to humanity, some of which are well-tested and would help us live longer, healthier and better lives that would be of great benefit to each individual and society. However, they are only applied in a few small and isolated communities such as the so-called blue zones.

Considering the assumption that most of us want to grow old healthy, it is truly amazing that the process of staying healthy is completely underdeveloped compared to the process of getting healthy again when you are sick.

In his talk, Elgar Fleisch will outline an engineer's vision of how to overcome the current state of the art. He will also present some of the current work he and his team are doing at the external pageETH Center for Digital Health Interventionscall_made.
 

About the speaker

Prof. Elgar Fleisch is a Professor of Information and Technology Management at ETH Zurich and University of St. Gallen (HSG) and Director at the Institute of Technology Management. His research interests focus on the current fusion of the physical and the digital world into an Internet of Things. His largest lab, the Center for Digital Health Interventions, investigates how digital technologies are changing our healthcare system. Elgar Fleisch and his team have published their results in over 600 scientific papers. His last book was called: The Digital Pill - What Everyone Should Know about the Future of Our Healthcare System (Emerald 2021).

Elgar Fleisch is a co-founder of several university spin-offs and serves as a member of multiple academic steering committees as well as supervisory boards including Robert Bosch, Mobiliar Insurance Group and Uniqa Insurance Group. Born 1968 in Bregenz, Austria, Elgar Fleisch was trained in mechanical engineering, computer science and business administration. He received his PhD in Artificial Intelligence in 1993 and devoted his postdoc time to the “networked enterprise”. 2002 he was appointed full professor at University of St. Gallen (HSG), 2004 also at ETH Zurich. Elgar Fleisch spent his sabbaticals at MIT and Dartmouth College.